Patriots coach Jerod Mayo sidesteps clarification of ‘soft’ comments

Last week, New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo took a lot of heat for saying his team was “soft” following a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

This week, they responded by proving him wrong.

Sunday, the Patriots snapped their six-game losing streak with a gutsy last-second victory over the flailing New York Jets. Afterward, Mayo was asked if he wanted to clarify his prior comments, which landed him in hot water with several media members, including his predecessor.

The first-year head coach said he didn’t want to “go back to” those comments and insisted he didn’t challenge their resiliency.

Jerod Mayo said he doesn’t want to “go back to” his postgame comments from London where he called his team “soft,” saying he never questioned the resilience of his team:

“What I will say is we have a room full of guys with the mentality that you got to change the page every day.… pic.twitter.com/MHGQvTkCvK

— TommyFreezePops (@yaboiTCfresh) October 27, 2024

“What I will say is we have a room full of guys with the mentality that you got to change the page every day,” Mayo told reporters. “Every day is a new day. We have to get better and understand practice is the most important thing we do until we get to the game.”

For their part, Patriots players told reporters after the win that they saw Mayo’s comments as a “challenge.”

“Nobody took it personal,” cornerback Christian Gonzalez told reporters. “It’s a challenge. We came out and did what we had to do.”

“When your leader says something about you like that, you never want that to define you,” Hunter Henry said. “These guys I think responded well. I think we all responded well to what was said last week. We were able to go out there and get a win.”

[TommyFreezePops, NESN]